This Week’s Insights: What young people think (surprisingly)… Is patronage the new audience builder?… Audience engagement is already a thing (be fore it became “a thing”… The world is accelerating (but just in your head… How art is adopting the “slow food” approach.
- The Secret Life Of Young People (And aren’t you dying to know)…: Choreographer Rosie Kay wanted to make a piece that would speak to young people. So she started talking with them. She “quickly discovered that, when asked, young people seemingly across the board have this wealth of knowledge on subversive theories of power and control. This knowledge – because it’s rarely discussed outside these circles, let alone taken seriously – remains largely unheard of to older audiences.” It boils down to a deep distrust of establishment norms. “The Youth Index recently reported that 44% of young people said they didn’t know what to believe in the media, and here I was learning how they are creating their own theories of who holds power and control in contemporary society and over individuals’ lives.”
- Your Audience Depends On Who’s Funding You: The non-profit model is fraying. So maybe we’re reverting to an older patronage model? “Patrons of the 21st century are far less politically motivated than the Medici family and their ilk, and they generally don’t house artists in their lavish estates or command them to paint frescos. But just like the patrons of old, they are giving creators a pathway to success and economic stability, providing living expenses, supplies, pep talks and more.” What has this to do with audience? Motivated funders tend to take audience cultivation very seriously…
- Okay – So Is “Audience Engagement” Really Just A Buzz Phrase? After all, audiences have always been engaged in some way, right? “Steven Weisz argues that there are plenty of smaller companies and organizations “already firmly entrenched in the communities they service … [and] tend to attract younger and more diverse audiences as a result” – and that, instead of throwing grant money at large organizations for “engagement” programs, funders should send that money their way instead.”
- Time Isn’t Really Getting Faster – We Just Think It Is (And That’s Changing The Ways We Behave) “Over the past five decades, and especially over the past few years, much of the world has got faster. Working patterns, political cycles, everyday technologies, communication habits and devices, the redevelopment of cities, the acquisition and disposal of possessions – all of these have accelerated. Meanwhile, over the same half century, almost entirely unnoticed by the media or mainstream academia, accelerationism has gradually solidified from a fictional device into an actual intellectual movement: a new way of thinking about the contemporary world and its potential.”
- Slow Food, Slow Art? More and more, art galleries are acting like museums. “Ironically, as if in a reversal of roles, many art galleries now act like museums did in the past. Their spaces now feel sterile and out of touch. For a time now, galleries have abided by the corporate business model, creating a corporatized art-buying experience. But the real issue facing art galleries today is this: Does the corporate model that has satisfied cultured people for decades still provide fulfillment? How can the art industry adapt to a consumer society in which everything is being turned into an event?”
Image: Pixabay
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